


it's so overwhelming (the thrill of affection)

by witchadamparrish



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: College, Established Relationship, M/M, Mild Angst, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 04:05:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18865351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/witchadamparrish/pseuds/witchadamparrish
Summary: Old insecurities were hard to let go of, especially when you were hundreds of miles away from your boyfriend for weeks and months at a time, while Adam was surrounded by people just like him, just as smart and ambitious.(Or, someone insults Ronan, and Adam responds; for the kiss prompt "...out of spite")





	it's so overwhelming (the thrill of affection)

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from [this list](https://adamparrush.tumblr.com/post/184936772540/send-me-a-ship-and-a-number-and-i-will-write-a). Title is from "Say Something Loving" by The xx.

“I hate that stupid, pretentious, elitist piece of shit,” Adam fumed, slamming the door to his dorm room behind them. “He’s so fucking–-Brad really thinks so damn highly of himself, and then has the nerve to say that about  _you_ , as if he’s not just pissed that I rejected him.”

Ronan stood nonchalantly in front of Adam’s shitty dorm bed with his hands in his pockets, trying his best to look unruffled. “Calm down, Parrish. It’s not a big deal,” he lied.

Adam looked up and met his eyes, gaze sharp and unflinching. “Of course it’s a big deal.”

Sure, maybe it  _was_  a big deal that a guy — who was good looking by other people’s standards, in several of Adam’s classes, and had asked Adam out weeks ago — had drunkenly insulted Ronan to his face, questioning why genius Adam Parrish would still be dating his high school sweetheart – high school  _dropout_ sweetheart – and how Adam could think long distance relationships like that could actually last, but Ronan wasn’t going to say that.

“Whatever,” Ronan said gruffly. “Not like it’s not what everyone is thinking anyways.”

That second part wasn’t supposed to come out so insecure, wasn’t supposed to come out at all, and Ronan hunched in on himself, dropping his eyes.

Adam crossed the space between them in two long strides and held Ronan’s face in his hands, lifting it to meet his stricken, yet determined expression.

“That’s not true,” Adam said, something raw in his voice. “It’s  _not_. And if it is, then they’re all stupid. I don’t care what they think.”

Ronan didn’t say anything.

“ _Ronan_ ,” Adam insisted, burying his face in Ronan’s neck and clutching the back of his shoulders. “Don’t be an idiot. You’re everything that I want.” 

Ronan sighed, wrapping his arms around Adam’s waist and nosing at Adam’s hair. “Yeah. Okay.”

Adam didn’t seem convinced that Ronan was convinced. Ronan himself wasn’t convinced that he was convinced either. Old insecurities were hard to let go of, especially when you were hundreds of miles away from your boyfriend for weeks and months at a time while Adam was surrounded by people just like him, just as smart and ambitious.

Adam guided him to the bed and took him apart gently, sweet and lingering, as if he was trying to say with his mouth, his fingers, his hands,  _I’m staying right here_. After, his arm wrapped around Ronan’s middle and his lips softly brushed Ronan’s neck, saying  _I’ll never leave you_.

The next day, a lazy Saturday afternoon, they ran into Brad in the hallway of one of Harvard’s many buildings. Their hands had been swinging between their bodies and Adam had been complaining about one of his professors when their eyes landed on Brad several feet away from him, talking to one of his douchebag friends.  

Adam stopped talking mid-sentence and narrowed his eyes at the other boy, who glanced at them and away, several times.

Adam looked at Ronan again, studied his stoic face, opened his mouth as if to say something.

But instead, Adam just leaned in and kissed him, hard, wrapping his hands around Ronan’s neck and pressing his body close.

Ronan’s eyes widened in surprise - it’s not like they never kissed in public, not after over a year of being together, but neither of them were into PDA, not like this, with Adam’s tongue slipping into Ronan’s mouth and Ronan’s hand slipping under his shirt.

When they pulled back, after a long, long time, Brad was still there, staring at them in deep annoyance, and when they turned his way he promptly fled the hallway.

Adam was grinning, wide and helpless and boyish. Ronan couldn’t help grin back. He loved Adam like this, ridiculous and reckless and mean and spiteful and happy, all at once.

“I told you,” Adam said. “Everyone else is stupid.”

“Everyone but us,” Ronan said. He liked the sound of that, Adam and him against the world.

Adam had to ruin it, snorting. “No,” Adam murmured, nosing at Ronan’s jaw, making his breath hitch. “You’re the most stupid of them all, Lynch.”

Ronan could feel Adam’s grin against his cheek as he left a peck there.

Ronan couldn’t stop smiling. “Yeah. Sure.”

Adam grabbed him by the hand again and they walked quickly in silence back to his room. Ronan was grateful that his roommate seemed to never be around. This time, when Adam kissed him, passionate and hungry, whispering  _you’re amazing_ in his ear as he pressed Ronan against the door, onto his bed, no one was watching.

When they were laying on the bed afterward, Ronan murmured, a little dazed and love drunk, “Think we’re giving Blue and Gansey a run for their money with the whole forbidden love thing.”

“Mmm? How so?”

“You know. Academic nerd and high school dropout. Genius engineer and country boy farmer. The world will try to tear us apart. It’s a love story for the ages.”

“Yeah, that what makes it forbidden,” Adam replied dryly. “Not the fact that we’re two guys.”

“Nah, that’s irrelevant.”

“It doesn’t work anyways. You’re a nerd and a genius, too, even if you’re not academic.”

“Liar.”

Adam gave him a look, judgmental even as he tangled their fingers together and traced Ronan’s palm between their bodies, tender in a casual, unthinking way that always made Ronan’s heart race. “You were literally rereading  _Metamorphoses_ last week, Lynch. In the original Latin.”

Ronan was amused at the mix of jealousy and admiration in the words. Parrish was never going to get over the fact that Ronan was better at Latin than he was, and Ronan planned to use that to his advantage as frequently as possible.

“Don’t see your point,” Ronan argued, and kissed Adam before he could shoot back a retort.

He kissed him and kissed him, floating in the knowledge that Adam was his, that he was Adam’s, and that no amount of Ivy League dipshits nor anyone else in the whole fucking world could ever take that away from them.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or kudos if you liked it! Find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/eIeanorguthries) or [tumblr](https://adamparrush.tumblr.com).


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